The most unforgettable moments in life are when someone has a big impact on you or when you are able to have a large impact on someone else. Whether it is in the personal or professional sphere, these are the moments we never forget. Editor-In-Chief Yasmine Shihata shares some of her unforgettable moments from eniGma’s exclusive event with Sir Richard Branson & President Jimmy Carter…
One such time for me was when I interviewed Sir Richard Branson. After reading all about his business success and admiring the power of the Virgin brand, I was not prepared for how human and inspirational Sir Richard would be in person. After all, many high profile businessmen with a 10th of the success of the iconic Virgin Group and its 400 companies (in everything from space travel to music), are aloof to those outside of their inner circle. Yet Sir Richard is different; despite all his fame, wealth and success, he remains totally down to earth and genuinely interested in the plight of those less fortunate around the world.
That is what led him to create his foundation Virgin Unite in 2004, which unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to help make people’s lives better. The aim is to revolutionise the way business, government and the social sector work together – to drive business as a force for good. The foundation also incubates new, independent approaches to leadership including the Carbon War Room, the Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship and The Elders. Sir Richard, at the helm of his foundation, helped create the non-political group called “The Elders”, composed of former statesmen and women and iconic religious and cultural figures. Their main purpose is to travel to areas of conflict and instability and to use their collective expertise and wisdom to help resolve the complex issues facing the world.
It was a meeting of The Elders held in Cairo last month that brought Sir Richard to our city for his first proper visit. And although he knew he would have a packed schedule in Cairo with The Elders, prior to his arrival Sir Richard and I discussed the possibility of organising a discussion evening for him to meet and inspire Egyptian entrepreneurs, and raise money for a local charity while doing so. We eventually agreed to choose Injaz Egypt, a charity which helps prepare Egyptian students and entrepreneurs for the challenges of the market and the real world (to know more about Injaz Egypt visit www.injaz-egypt.org). It was only two weeks before his visit that we decided to go ahead with the idea…
With every conceivable obstacle ahead of us (lack of time, budget, awareness) for this event, the eniGma team and I worked non-stop to put the event together. It didn’t help that Sir Richard’s visit coincided with the Eid al Adha holiday! Yet somehow, with the help of Sir Richard (who donated his time and waived his speaking fee) and our sponsors, in the end everything came together…
The Four Seasons Nile Plaza kindly donated their beautiful Plaza Ballroom for our event as well as delicious canapés for our reception. Coca-cola generously donated all the refreshments and our media sponsor Al Masry Al Youm newspaper kindly provided us with two large ads in their paper to promote the event. ProVision event organising and video company provided us with all the video and technical services. Despite the short notice, the companies above all supported and believed in what we were trying to accomplish, and helped pull the evening off.
A huge difference was made by Enigma’s loyal Facebook fans and Twitter followers as well as Richard Branson’s personal blog, where the event was heavily promoted in the tight lead up to the event. From the minute Sir Richard arrived in Cairo, we undertook a whirlwind of press and social media promotions, and even squeezed in a felucca ride on the Nile and a historic visit to Tahrir Square!
The true excitement, however, came on the night of our event, especially since only a few hours before, Sir Richard informed us that he would be inviting former President Jimmy Carter as his ‘surprise guest’ to be part of the event and the discussion. Needless to say this was another huge honour for us, on top of the amazing honour of hosting an event with Sir Richard.
The evening began with a video introduction on Sir Richard, and then after huge applause, the man himself joined me on stage. We discussed his secrets of success, his advice to Egyptian youth and his exciting plans for Virgin Galactic. We then turned our discussion to Virgin Unite and The Elders; and on that note Sir Richard invited President Carter (a member of The Elders) to join us on stage. With a roar of applause from the audience, President Carter took his place and we all were in awe of what happened next: Sir Richard Branson interviewing President Carter… in Cairo! As I sat next to these two iconic and inspiring men, even I was in a state of disbelief most of the time… (read all the highlights of the discussion below).
The two men had a fascinating conversation about the Palestinian crisis, President Morsi and the future of Egypt and their ongoing work with the Elders around the world. After the session with President Carter, we opened the discussion to the audience to ask their questions to Sir Richard. The enthusiasm from the crowd was overwhelming. A whole range of questions were asked, and there was a memorable moment when comedian Dr. Bassem Youssef took us all by surprise and asked Sir Richard, just how he was able to get himself on an episode of the US hit series Friends! (Don’t miss our video of this question and the rest of the discussions on our YouTube channel (enigmamagtv).
In the end it was a fascinating and historic night for Egypt; all the more significant because the audience didn’t consist of statesmen and business moguls, but mainly young Egyptian entrepreneurs who donated a good amount to the Injaz foundation in order to come and learn from Sir Richard in person. Indeed it was an inspirational event for all… And for eniGma Magazine it was a wonderful opportunity to bring world figures closer to young hard working Egyptians during our difficult transition period; made all the more wonderful by being able to raise money for such a worthy foundation like Injaz Egypt.
For those who were not able to join us on this historic evening, please find some of the highlights of the discussion below:
How do you feel about Egypt’s Revolution?
Living in a free country is an important aspect of everybody’s life. Most Egyptians have never known the beauty of democracy. I know that by no means is the new Egypt perfect yet, but it’s an awful lot better than it was. It’s still in its infancy, and we just have to hope it gets better.
What advice do you have for struggling business people during this challenging time for Egypt?
When you have a nation that has just been through a revolution, you’ll obviously have a year or two where everything is going to be difficult in business; particularly when you have a global recession as well, but it can only get better. Every young businessperson should have a go and build his business. It’s the small businesses that will create the jobs and get the economy going. Companies should try something like job sharing, where some people work in the mornings and others in the evening; thus employing more people part time. Then there will be a lot more people at work in Egypt. I think Egypt will come out from the recession and I’m very optimistic for the future.
What does Egypt need to have in place to encourage businessmen like you to invest in the country?
The most important thing is that Egypt embraces all Egyptians. Obviously the elections were very close, yet thankfully President Morsi has stated he is a leader for all Egyptians and not just the Egyptians who supported him. Of course there are Egyptians who feel the jury is still out on that and it’s very important that the Muslim Brotherhood make it very clear that they truly embrace all Egyptians. If that happens, the world will be very happy to invest in Egypt. Virgin already has a license to fly to Egypt and once we feel comfortable about that issue and see Egypt is genuinely stable and moving forward, we’ll be happy to start flying to Egypt. That in itself can help bring a lot of people to Egypt and help bring down the price of cargo.
What is your advice to young entrepreneurs?
A business means making a difference to other people’s lives; so if you have an idea to make a difference to other people’s lives, just try it. A lot of people don’t have the courage to start their own business, but as my book Screw It, Let’s Do It explains, people just need to give their ideas a try. If you can create your business in a field that interests you, you’re likely to do it much better than if you work on something you know nothing about. You can sometimes even start a business without financial backing. It’s not easy, but its possible. After all, you can try to come up with fun imaginative ways to fund the company.
What is your advice on building a business brand?
Your brand or your name is your reputation. And in life you have to fight to protect your reputation. Nothing is more important. I never thought of myself as a businessman; I just came across situations where I thought,“we can do better than this.” For example, the idea for Virgin Airlines came to me when I was traveling from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands, and the love of my life was waiting for me in the Virgin Islands. I was 26 years old then, and American airlines decided to cancel the flight just because there weren’t enough passengers. I was determined to get there that night, so I hired a plane, borrowed a black board and wrote on it ‘29 dollars single one-way ticket to the Virgin Islands’ and called it Virgin. I went around to all those who were waiting and filled up my first plane! When we arrived, someone put their arms around me and said, “sharpen up the service a bit and you can be in the airline business!”
What is your advice on growing a brand?
If you spend your life doing something that you really enjoy, it’s quite likely that you will do it better than other people. Once you’ve actually got the idea, the next step is to get good people around you. You’ve got to be a wonderful leader in order to build your business; you’ve got to be a good listener, be good at praising people and you need to go out and promote your business yourself. Do promotions that are fun and make people smile. Learn the art of delegation and don’t try to do it all yourself.The Virgin brand is a way of life brand that partly reflects my inquisitiveness. I love learning about new things, I love challenging people around me. If I’m frustrated about something, I’ll think ‘let’s see if we can do it better’, and we go ahead and try it. That is how the Virgin Brand has grown around the world.
Tell us about how you created the non-political group of The Elders…
A number of years ago the artist Peter Gabriel and myself decided that the world needed 12 wonderful men and women who could look after its moral authority and intervene in conflicts around the world. Nelson Mandela agreed to be the founding Elder and Archbishop Desmond Tutu became the Chair of the Elders. We also have President Jimmy Carter, Kofi Anan and some wonderful women such as Mary Robinson from Northern Ireland, Gro Harlem Brundtland from Norway and Ella Bhat from India. Lakhdar Brahimi is also an Elder who was asked to help in the Syrian crisis. All the Elders have no political affiliations and share the joy of using their moral authority to help humanity. They go to conflict regions and try to resolve conflicts. They’ve had great successes in Sudan and other areas. Yet they’re still trying to resolve issues between Palestine and Israel and other places in the world.
What did the Elders tell you about their views on Egypt’s future?
Like many people around the world, they pray Egypt would be all-inclusive and all Egyptians feel included in the process. They feel that Egypt will have a great future. We all want to help Egypt stand on its feet as we believe in and are inspired by the Egyptian people.
Questions by Richard Branson to President Jimmy Carter:
If we could go back a bit in history when Egypt and Israel were at war, I would love to have a history lesson from you direct. What happened there and how did you manage to bring peace in that situation?
When I became president of the US, Egypt and Israel had been at war four times in just 25 years, I was determined to bring them together. Luckily I had a brave, courageous and generous man who was the best friend I ever had among the heads of states: President Anwar Sadat. When he came to Camp David he only asked for two things: peace and justice for his people and independence for the Palestinians. In the Camp David records, we got both points agreed to by Egypt, Israel and the USA. Since then the peace treaty has been honoured by Egypt and not a single point has been violated in 33 years, but Israel has never carried through with their commitment to the Palestinians. So my remaining goal is to make sure that all the Israelis are out of Palestine and the Palestinians have their own country living side by side with a peaceful Israel and a peaceful Egypt.
Coming to the Arab Spring, is it something to celebrate?
I don’t call it the Arab Spring. I call it the Arab Awakening. The It’s one of the most historic developments we’ve seen in the last 100 years. I like to remind all Egyptians how far they have come. We came to Egypt at the very early stages and we’ve seen the development. I’ve talked to a lot of young Egyptians, particularly those who don’t think their dreams of the revolution have come true. And that’s true; they haven’t come true yet. But I urge Egyptians to be patient, courageous and don’t give up on their dreams. Take credit for what you’ve done and continue to be an inspiration to the rest of the world.